{"id":42,"date":"2008-04-23T14:45:41","date_gmt":"2008-04-23T18:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/?p=42"},"modified":"2008-04-23T14:45:41","modified_gmt":"2008-04-23T18:45:41","slug":"the-idol-of-christian-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-idol-of-christian-service\/","title":{"rendered":"The Idol of Christian Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a Christian minister, I am called to carry out the work that has been prepared for me before the foundation of the world. Actually, every Believer in Christ has, certainly not just “professional Christians” like pastors and the like, as it is through the blessing of service that we become most Christlike and, thereby, most glorifying to God.<\/p>\n

However, I am reminded today just how dangerous that work can be. I’m not talking about the dangers of the world, like taking the Gospel to areas that are opposed to Christianity (though those are certainly very real dangers). I’m talking about the more subtle ones; the ones that are much more dangerous – one can kill your body, the other can kill your soul. I’m talking about worshiping at the idol of Christian service.<\/p>\n

I read a variety of devotions from time-to-time and so, today, I was looking at My Utmost for His Highest<\/a>. In it, Oswald Chambers warned of the dangers of worshiping the work. He warns us to “beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work.” What an important thing to keep in mind because it is so easy a trap to fall into.<\/p>\n

I can’t count the number of times I have had a particular issue, problem, or opportunity to dominate my mind, so that I get up in the morning, get myself ready, scurry off to the office and get to work on it. It may be the middle of the afternoon before I ever even think of God…and I’m a pastor!! The problem is that I’ve allowed the work FOR God to crowd about my devotion TO God. When that happens, I not only dishonor God, but I allow myself to be stripped of the very power and insight that will allow the work to not only go smoothly, but successfully.<\/p>\n

There are any number of idols that we can fall down before whether it is money and possessions, relationships or opportunity. One of the most dangerous is that of Christian service. At least with the others, there is a pretty good chance someone can point out the idolatry. With Christian service, the more you do it, the holier you look<\/em>…which can be incredibly deadly.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a Christian minister, I am called to carry out the work that has been prepared for me before the foundation of the world. Actually, every Believer in Christ has, certainly not just “professional Christians” like pastors and the like, as it is through the blessing of service that we become most Christlike and, thereby,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8],"tags":[138],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-G","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2705,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/conversational-scripture-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":0},"title":"Conversational Scripture Reading","date":"November 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever tried\u00a0praying Scripture back to God? 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A billion years or so into eternity, how many toys\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3372,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/owned\/","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":2},"title":"Owned","date":"March 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a passage that, if you consider it honestly and seriously, will rock your world and radically change your priorities: Luke 12:31-34\u00a0 But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided for you. Don\u2019t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom. Sell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2680,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/important-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":3},"title":"Important Perspective","date":"July 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\"O Lord, I am a shell of dust, but animated with an invisible rational soul and made anew by an unseen power of grace.\" Excerpt from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, p. 166","rel":"","context":"In "Devotions\/Biblical Insights"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":198,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/psi-words-in-the-end-are-still-just-words-1-john-15-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":4},"title":"PSI – Words, in the End, Are Still Just Words – 1 John 1:5-10","date":"November 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It is a popular notion, as Americans, to call ourselves Christians.\u00a0 Ask just about anybody, regardless of lifestyle, beliefs or politics, and they will tell you they are Christian.\u00a0 This just points to the fact that the word, \"Christian,\" has become meaningless.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, many would hold\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/psi-living-the-challenge-1-2-3-john\/","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":5},"title":"PSI – Living the Challenge: 1, 2, 3 John","date":"November 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I issued a challenge at The Gathering to begin to get into Scripture.\u00a0 (Audio can be accessed through our website, the Sermon Audio page of this blog, or iTunes, if interested).\u00a0 Looking at the Model Prayer in Matthew 6, we have spent the last three weeks on verse 11:\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Devotions\/Biblical Insights"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}